Despite our own storytellers figuring out how the world was made, the other beings in the world have their own stories of how the world came to be. These stories are recorded in the archives, for use by diplomats and travelers.
Siswhen World Creation: How the Beings Came Into Existence
And the world was fully formed, as we see it today. Rivers flowed to the sea, waves crashed on the shore, storms and clouds billowed in the sky, plants sprouted, and beasts swam and ran throughout the world. And, hidden from view, the elemental spirits appeared, pleased with the world they inhabited.
But over time, the spirits grew unhappy, for while they could watch the world, and draw life from its energies, they desired to touch, feel, and influence their environment, and take part in its shaping. And so the spirits began looked for ways o influence the environment. Some tried telekinesis, others tried movement, and other tried intense focus. Through years of practice, the spirits learned to influence, and play with, the world.
Than one day, while playing in a puddle, a spirit of water discovered it could merge with the water, taking the water as a body, and manipulating it as if the water was a creature. Other spirits were confused at first, unsure of what they were seeing. The water spirit at first was scared, and in desperation, freed itself from the water. Whispering to the other spirits, the fear and confusion turned to joy, as the other spirit learned to possess their own bodies of dirt, cloud, and fire. Later, the spirits could possess animals and plants, some even changing the shapes and sizes of their hosts, until the creatures rejected the spirits.
The storytellers cannot say how long this lasted until a spirit, desiring more control over their bodies, fully merged with a creature, merging with the kelp found throughout the edges of the ocean. Not realizing what it had done, the spirit struggled, but soon learned to live with its new body, and to this day is known as Sargasso. Its descendents still prowl the ocean to this day, floating through the water and consuming whatever debris comes its way, and is still a feisty and combative creature.
The other spirits mourned the loss of their friend, but other spirits, desiring a more permanent connection to the world, merged willingly with pieces of the world, forming the elementals and golems we know today. But the true goal of most spirits was to merge with an animal, for the animals could crasp and run, and had intelligence that a possessing spirit could use.
It was the most powerful, arrogant, and ambitious spirits who first merged with a creature. Seeing the powerful, fire breathing drakes, feared by no other creature, the most powerful of the spirits forced their way into the drake's bodies. But even the drake's bodies do not have all that another body might, and the willful spirits copied other animals, giving their hosts the wings of a pterosaur, the teeth and bite of a crocodile, a roar greater than that of a tiger or lion, and grew the creatures to the size of the great whales found in the ocean, turning the already fearsome drakes into dragons, the most feared creatures ever to inhabit the world. But a large dragon is hard to control, and even the most willful spirits could barely control the instincts of the creatures they had created. And to this day, the aggression and arrogance of dragons has made them many enemies, and despite their power, most have been killed by chitinous armies, or other beings.
Other spirits were less willful and ambitious, and simply took over smaller creatures that suited their desires. Today, their descendants are the faeries, speaking trees, speaking rocks, tunnel moles, and others that are found in pockets throughout the world. Over the years, these creatures have proved happier than the dragons. Mostly attached too once place, they happily play their part in the world to this day.
But it was an ambitious, yet patient and intelligent, spirit of beasts that created the first of the successful beings in existence today. It wished to control the forces of the natural world, from beasts to soil to rivers and plants, and knew that not just any creature would do. Like the dragon posessors, this spirit wished to control a powerful creature, and first looked to other powerful animals, like the tyrannosaur, kraken, or great pterosaur. But unlike those who posessed the drakes, it knew the raw power was not everything, and also looked to smaller creatures, like the lion of the deer, for it knew that such creatures, through their numbers, could change their surroundings in astounding ways.
It was while the spirit was considering capturing a ground raptor that the spirit found its creature. Living in the forests and plains with the ground raptors were baboons, apes, and monkeys. As the spirit considered the ground raptors, it saw how adaptable and intelligent the apes and baboons were. The spirit considered how the creatures could use sticks and rocks around them, eat almost anything, and how the same body shape could survive in forests and in the open. Thinking out the possibilities, the spirit realized, that in apes and baboons, it had found the creatures it wished to possess. Gathering its friends, the spirit posessed some baboons and apes, and shaped them to suits its purposes. The creatures were made taller, and minds expanded. They were made able to run for longer, and the hands that could use sticks and rocks were made even more skilled. The spirit made a wise choice, for today, its descendents are the humans, and they live throughout the world. As the spirit wished, the humans have power over nature, having tamed animals, grown plants, and harnessed the rivers and soil.
On seeing the success of the humans, few spirits realized what the spirit of beasts had accomplished. One who recognized, however, was a spirit of waves. Realizing that a similar creature could give this spirit influence over the wind, waves, weather, and currents, it sought a similar creature. In the ocean, the spirit found it: the octopus. Flexible, clever, and able to break into the tightest of spaces, the octopus was the host the wave spirit desired. Today, its descendants are the tentacled, famed for their stealth and cleverness. The spirit made the octopus larger, able to travel on land, and allowed it to survive the birth of children. And while weather is a much harder force to control than the elements of nature, the tentacled have an uncanny ability to sense and adapt to changes, and their rituals seem unusually linked to miracles of rainfall or ocean blooming. Like the human, they have spread over the world, taking to marshes, lakes, and shore as the humans take to forests and farmland.
It was a spirit of decay that created the third widespread creature we know today. Capturing the earthworms found in most of the world, creatures that scavenge soil and decomposing bodies, their descendents are the cultists, masters of life and death. Their rituals change bodies to snow angels, undead, and other of the most feared and welcomed forms to meet. Able to commune with the dead, scavenge almost anything, even rumors of resurrection, the cultists bodies still give away the lowly worm origins.
Finally came the most successful of the spirit's hosts. A spirit of enhancement, who had first wished to capture gemstones and water, this spirit saw the success of the last three spirits, and looked for a creature itself. Ass a spirit of enhancement, this spirit was already used to seeing the potential in unassuming objects, and this spirit looked for an even more obscure creauture than before. Selecting the ant, that small, but numerous, burrowing creature found nearly everywhere, this spirit greatly increased its size, and turned its front legs into hands as the humans had done. Becoming the chitinous, their empires dominate the world today. They are masters of enhancement and transformation, their smiths and craftsmen making the finest and strongest materials, and like the ants they descend from, the live in burrows, formed into a strong hive society, with legendary organization and obedience.
Most of the elemental spirits without hosts exist as wisps today, responding to rituals, and many say they are not even there. But one remaining spirit of energy still wished to influence the world. and so it captured the wisp, that creature of smoke and cloud that lives in the deserts and swamps of the world. And while the other spirits could not understand this choice of host, they soon saw the intelligence of the decision. For using the wisp, these final spirits could still absorb and form a body from nearby materials, fire, or cloud. And wisps do not need to eat, instead, they merely need a source of sun, fire, or energy. Today, we form the djinn. And while the chitinous believe that they are the natural rulers of the world, we have lived in lands that the chitinous shun, from deserts to hot plains. Our power over fire and energy, the abilities the others call "magic", and skills with atronomy are well known throughout the world.
Today, there are many spirits with now host, and they are known through ritual and occasional hauntings. However, today it is the descendents of hosts who fill the world.
Comments
Most djinn stories are similar, although each nation of djinn has its own slightly different version. A few say that the djinn are spirits who did not capture a host They all flatter us with being the second to last spirit to capture a creature.
While the djinn story is compelling, it makes little sense to explain such an obvious symmetry and design in their world through random actions. Why only 5 spirits would choose to capture hosts is a strange coincidence. The djinn understanding of the world also assumes 5 types of magic in the world, with many subtypes, while or own sorcerers say there are 14. Our own scholars think the djinn story was originally the ramblings and guesses of djinn mages and mystics, and that these beings simply are too proud to admit they were wrong.
It is clear to our storytellers that the creator planned the djinn to have power over the energies of the world, and over the stars in the sky. The djinn, lijke the tentacled, humans, and cultists, have become changed in some way, not realizing their place in the world.
